Shredding devices exist in the prior art in various sizes and designs for shredding materials from metal to paper. The majority of shredders outside of industrial and waste management applications are designed for shredding paper and other media to prevent the disclosure of confidential information. Many papers and materials, such as medical records, financial statements, billing summaries, etc. include confidential information. Additionally, many companies routinely handle papers and materials which have confidential information associated with their clients or patients on them. Conventional paper shredders are sufficient to destroy many of these materials; however, other materials such as hard plastic and/or bulky materials such as prescription medication containers and the like may also contain confidential information. Medical professionals are required to protect this confidential information under Federal laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In order to do so for hard plastic and/or bulky materials the medical field has turned to shredding devices.
Several shredder designs, such as that of U.S. Pat. No. 7,284,715 to Dziesinski, are designed for meeting the needs of the medical field. However, these designs have several drawbacks in that they utilize either a linear powered ram or gravity to feed the materials to be shredded into the cutting device. A linear powered ram design typically require that the shredder extend above a downward chute in order to accommodate the ram in a downward orientation. This increases the height of the shredder device above the cutting section and requires a reduction in the amount of space within the housing which can be devoted to storing shredded materials. This is also often an undesirable consequence as physical space is often at a premium in a medical facility. The cost of the ram and its associated power/control system frequently raises the manufacturing cost of the shredder considerably. Alternatively, a gravity feed design alone is often ineffective to fully urge materials into the cutting device. A need for a compact and efficient shredding device capable of shredding containers and other packaging exists.